Despite our last minute planning, we were able to pull off a backpacking traverse on the Alaska Peninsula. Our plan was to traverse the Valley of 10,000 Smokes to the Coast……As usual, things didn’t go quite as planned, but we still had an amazing trip!

Day 1 was spent hanging with the bears at Brooks Camp. Since we spending week backpacking, (and not coming back to Brooks Camp) I accepted the fact that I wasn’t able to bring my long lens…..it still didn’t make it any easier standing on the platform thinking of the shots I could have got…..

Sarah, Kasey, and I met Nick at Brooks Lodge that night and invited him on our backpacking trip. Although he only had one night to spend with us, he was up for an adventure. Nick camped with us near Novarupta (approx. 14-15 miles?) and he made it back by 2:30 pm the next day to catch the bus back to Brooks Camp. Pretty awesome way to spend 28 hours and 30 miles in the Valley.

After getting dropped off by the bus in the Valley on Day 2, Nick, Kasey, Sarah, and I headed into the Valley of 10,000 Smokes. We found easy walking, mostly on pumice, and crazy, amazing views. The further we traveled, the less vegetation, the more it felt like we were walking on the moon.

Sarah & Kasey walking next to Windy River.River Lethe.Another view of the River Lethe.Nick, Sarah, and Kasey hiking next to the River Lethe.Footprints in the pumice.

Looking back down valley. The hiking was incredibly easy, with spectacular views in every direction.My partners in crime-Nick, Kasey, & Sarah.Mount Mageik. There are crazy colors in the Valley of 10,000 smokes. Almost looks like a box of colored chalk exploded everywhere.Novarupta!More amazing colors at Novarupta. We found ice melt for water & a small stream. Novarupta still lets off steam and at the vents felt like a steam bath at the spa.

Awesome colors everywhere.Day 3, we hiked up Broken Mountain & looped around Novarupta. We had hoped to also hike up Fallen, but the weather moved in & soon it was blowing 30 mph.

View of Baked Mountain, taken from Broken Mountain.Kasey coming around the backside of Novarupta, with Mt. Katmai in the background.Novarupta in the foreground with Baked Mountain in the background.Little vegetation (and less water) in the Valley of 10,000 smokes. We did find some water areas that others didn’t. Dwarf fireweed, Baked Mountain.The winds picked up early on night 3, 30-40 mph. Luckily, we had a 3 person, 4 season Hilleberg. We camped in a pretty protected area (as protected as it gets in the Valley), we still had to tighten guy lines a couple times through the night. We woke up the morning of Day 4 with high winds and little visibility. We checked weather, and was told it was going to stay like that for two more days, then break. We decided to make a go for Katmai Pass and head out of the Valley.

Photo by Kasey Keogh. Me & Sarah. This is not Katmai Pass.

Admission: We used a map to navigate with very limited visibility (high winds and fog) trying to save batteries on our DeLorme (we were saving what was left of batteries for communication with pilot). Anyone familiar with my navigation skills wouldn’t be surprised we went in big circle……..Day 4 ended up being the day we took our packs for a walk…….

That afternoon the rain came with the wind. Sheets of rain and 30-40 mph winds. More tent time……At least we stayed dry in the Hilleberg. Around 2:30 am we heard a large animal outside our tent, we didn’t invistigate-just made a lot of noise……It was hard to tell the next morning with how saturated the ground was, but believe it was a bear.

Day 5. Still raining sideways. Promise of good weather to come tomorrow. We pack up and head to Katmai Pass, this time using the GPS 🙂 The rain quickly soaked through our Gore-tex, we kept a good pace, eating while walking to keep warm. We wished we had visibility to enjoy the last of the Valley, but that was not to be. We crossed the swollen rivers and creeks. Finally making it down to the other side, we set up camp early, stripping off our drenched clothes and warming up with hot tea and sleeping bags. More tent time……

Day 6. Holy Smokes! Sunshine, blue skies, and over 70f. Visibility! Day 6 is off to a good start! We weren’t too sure which way to head around Observation Mountain. We chose the wrong way. Hours of bushwhacking through thick alders in bear country, making little progress was deflating. We finally got to a place where we could head straight up the mountain and rise above treeline. Crazy going from the Valley of 10,000 Smokes where water & vegetation were scarce to overflowing rivers and dense alders in just a few miles.

Sarah & Kasey fueling up on meat sticks after the schwack.Coming down Observation. Beautiful view of Katmai River valley & the coast!Really cool rock formations on Observation.A look back at Observation & waterfall.White sand (actually it’s pumice). It felt like a day at the beach! Certainly was hot enough for it 🙂We had what felt like hundreds of river crossings to get to our destination. Kasey & Sarah crossing one of many braids on the Katmai River. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it all the way to the coast-the rivers were too high from unseasonably late snow melt (the Alaska Peninsula had a huge snow year….crazy, the rest of Alaska didn’t see much of the white stuff). Luckily, our pilot was able to give us an alternate destination he could pick us up at.Deckload Aviation. Keller. Best Air Taxi EVER.

I was fortunate enough to get invited to help Roy Toft and Mark Garbutt with their photo safari tour to Brooks Camp in Katmai in early September. I came on as camp cook and helped with guiding our 12 awesome clients. Brooks Camp is situated on Naknek lake. To get there you first hop a PenAir flight from Anchorage to King Salmon, then hop an Otter (bush plane) on floats and land on Naknek lake. As we landed there were bears as far as the eye could see-in the lake, on the beach, in the river. It’s almost a disneyland of brown bears. It was a five night/six day trip-half rain/wind & half sun-a little bit of everything. We even got to see two different sows with four cubs each!

These sub-adults played non-stop the entire time we were there-they fun to watch.

We got up early two mornings and made it out to the platform before sunrise. A little creepy going through the woods with 70-90 bears in the area, some being sows with cubs! We were rewarded by one nice sunrise and this bear walking like a human off the end of the spit!

Lazy bears fishing. Otis, in back, is one big, very fat bear. That was his permanent position, no other bear challenged his fishing hole. He was persistant, always in the same spot 24/7. The bear in front would wait until a fish swam into his chest, then he’d try to catch it.